Maurice Ries: Collection of Bernal Diaz Negatives, 1944 - 1967
COLLECTION GUIDE
Prepared by Ruth Olivera, October 1995.
Maurice Ries (1907 - 1986) was for several years a staff member of the
Middle American Research Institute and served as co-director with Arthur
E.
Gropp in the early 1940's. His commentary was used in a 1939 film titled
"Middle America," narrated by Lowell Thomas and John Martin. Writing in a
colorful and dramatic style, he published numerous newspaper features
which helped
popularize the archaeology and culture of Middle America. After leaving
New Orleans, Ries became active in the motion picture industry in
California.
As Ries explains in a document in this collection (Box 1, folder 4),
he became interested during several visits to Guatemala in what he called
the "original" manuscript of
Bernal Daíz del Castillo's Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la
Nueva España. With the aid of a
grant and the permission of the Guatemalan government, he arranged in 1948
for his wife Muriel, "a skilled photographer," to photograph the entire
manuscript in the Biblioteca Nacional. His reasoning being that as long
as
these negatives remained safe, the manuscript could never be completely
lost.
Ries believed the MS "Guatemala" to be a much more authentic version
that the version, now lost, which was used by Fray Alonso Remon in Spain
for the first published edition in 1632. This appraisal, however is
disputed by the Spanish scholar Carmelo Saenz de Santa María in his
introduction to what must now be considered the definitive edition of the
Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana, published in
Madrid in 1982 (F/12306D 5373/1982/LAL). In this edition, the Remón text
is placed in double columns with the MS "Guatemala," which is described as
being simply a draft. Yet it is not the only extant manuscript version.
Another manuscript of lesser authenticity called the "Alegría," of
which Ries was unaware of, has also come to light. He mentions the fact
that a
photographic reproduction of the MS "Guatemala" had been made in 1892, but
not that the manuscript was microfilmed by the Library of Congress in
1950. However, Ries's negatives are undoubtedly unique.
There are 597 "4 x 5" black and white negatives in this collection,
plus a number of duplicates and four color shots. There are also nine
contact prints. They have been placed in individual acid-free sleeves
with information duly recorded, such as the original box number and the
Pardo
number, with the quality of the negatives indicated by the appropriate
letters. See attached "Key to symbol" in pages and used in cataloging
Bernal Diaz del Castillo manuscript negatives in 1965. The Pardo number
refers to the number assigned by Dr. Joaquin Pardo, Guatemalan National
Librarian.
Besides the negatives, the collection contains detailed notes and
lists by the Ries's on the negatives, photographs of the photographing
procedure, and a talk by Maurice Ries dated 1967 about the man Bernal Díaz
del Castillo, the conquest of Mexico, and a history of the manuscript.
Latin American
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Last updated: August 6, 1998